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THE UNDERTAKER RETURNS TO THE RING: COMPLETE 7/7 WWE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN RESULTS

By Mike Johnson on 2018-07-07 22:45:00

World Wrestling Entertainment returned to the hallowed halls of Madison Square Garden as part of the Summerslam Heatwave tour, highlighted by the WWE in-ring debut of Ronda Rousey and the first appearance of The Undertaker in MSG since 2010.  The show drew a healthy crowd, one of the biggest in the Garden in some time for WWE.

Before the show began, WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler cut a promo on the videoscreen, promising to retain his title with the help of Big Daddy Claymore.  Drew McIntyre said he was just there to have the best seat in the house.  Big Daddy Claymore was obviously a Diesel reference.  McIntyre even had one of his hands gloved.

After the national anthem, they had a brief video with Kurt Angle welcoming everyone.

Bobby Lashley pinned Jinder Mahal with a Jackhammer.  Biggest pop of the match was Mahal accidentally punching Sunil Singh when Lashley moved.   It was what you would expect.

WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander pinned Buddy Murphy in an excellent match with the Lumbar Check.  Just as good as their most recent bout on 205 Live with lots of hard hitting sequences and close near falls.  Really great.  The crowd got extremely into this as the match went on and on.  They had enough time to let this develop into something special and it was great.

*WWE Raw Tag Team Champions Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt won a Triple Threat match over Titus Worldwide and The B-Team when Hardy hit the Twist of Fate on Titus O'Neill and scored the pin.  A lot of shenanigans but the crowd was into it.  Say what you will about the B-Team gimmick, but they got a big pop coming out.   

*Bayley & Natalya & Ember Moon defeated Alicia Fox & Liv Morgan & Sarah Logan when Bayley nailed the Bayley to Belly on Morgan.  Fox got a big reaction since it was one of her first matches back.  Bayley showed no signs of the angry side of her personality.  This was the MSG debut for Morgan and Logan.  There was a huge contingent of friends and family for Morgan going nuts as she's from New Jersey.  Moon was worked over for a long time to set up the hot tag.  Good match.

*They aired a video promo where Baron Corbin promised to bring the End of Days tonight for the Undertaker.

*Mojo Rawley pinned Bobby Roode with the Pounce.  Roode was making his MSG debut and yelled out, "It took me twenty years to get here."  He got a huge ovation from the Garden as he left.  The most surprising finish of the night with Roode being taken out from the top rope with the idea that his knee buckled.  He was helped all the way to the back by WWE officials.

*WWE Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler won a Triple Threat match over Seth Rollins and Finn Balor.   Rollins got, by far, the biggest pop of the night up until this point for his entrance.  Drew McIntyre was ejected from ringside early but returned when it appeared Rollins was going to win the title. He got on the apron, distracting Rollins and allowing Dolph score the pin with a roll up and he's put on the road.   This was excellent.  An absolutely PPV quality main event match with tons of near falls and lots of big spots.  Just great.  McIntyre looks like a superstar, even more than ever.  It's obvious his partnership with Ziggler has really helped Dolph reboot his career trajectory and it's great to watch the results.  Rollins had an incredible amount of support with fans chanting "Burn it Down" as he set up for the superkick.

Intermission.

*The Lucha House Party defeated Drew Gulak & Jack Gallagher & Brian Kendrick when Gran Metallik nailed a springboard elbow on Gulak for the pin.  Very good six man tag bout.  Gulak came out with Rocky-inspired gear that was great.    What you expect to see from the 205 Live talents.

*Ronda Rousey forced Nia Jax to tap in Rousey's MSG in-ring debut.  Alexis Bliss was to be the guest referee.  Instead Mickie James was the ref while Bliss was the enforcer.  They got involved and stopped several Rousey pinfalls.  They were finally laid out and another ref came in for the finish.  Before the ref came out, Rousey had the armbar on Jax but there was no one to call the submission.  Rousey looked absolutely thrilled to be there and spent a lot of time taking selfies and signing for ringside fans as she left.

*The Undertaker & Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman defeated Elias & Kevin Owens & Baron Corbin when Undertaker tombstoned and pinned Owens.  An absolutely great main event.   Elias sang a song before the match knocking MSG and saying he wanted to punch all the kids there in the face.   Undertaker received a massive pop and a huge, extended ovation when his music ended.  Owens ran from the ring the second he heard Braun Strowman's music.  That was brilliant.  The early portion was Braun overpowering everyone.  The crowd was into everything Braun did.  The villains worked over Roman for a long time and got a lot of heat on him, especially when they prevented him from making the tag.  Roman was booed mercifully coming to the ring but the crowd was into him getting worked over.  When he finally crawled to Undertaker to make the hot tag, the roar was insane.  Just insane.  I haven't heard MSG react to something like that during a live event in years.  It was one of those moments where pro wrestling is the greatest thing in the world. The final sequence saw Undertaker send Corbin into a Reigns spear, Elias into a Strowman powerslam and then chokeslam Owens.  This was absolutely perfect in how it was set up and executed and was one of the most entertaining MSG main events I have seen in a long, long time.

Notes: Jojo and Vic Joseph handled ring announcing and hosting duties....They were selling a commemorative shirt featuring The Undertaker standing in front of the NYC skyline at the event...They were selling signed photos of Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns....They announced a 12/26 return with a Smackdown live event headlined by AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe for the WWE Championship and The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan.  We will see if those matches hold up by the time December rolls around.

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